Opinions on the direction of the game

Last week on /r/Planetside, /u/SweatshopTycoon (aka: Visigodo), made a post in the following reddit thread that I believe perfectly described this game's state and its issues.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/4tqd80/populations_are_now_back_to_and_have_been_the/

Here is the post:

Sorry, about the dark text, copying directly from reddit so grey on black doesn't work so well. You can see the comment quoted at the top of the linked reddit thread.

Anyways, I just wanted to hear forumside's opinion because the player base here tends to have a much different mindset when it comes to the game. I strongly recommend reading the most of thread even though it is pretty long.

I agree on his four legitimate points, but I could not disagree more with his crap about Construction.


The problem with Construction is that currently, there is no reason for us to fight over it. I can ignore Construction completely for a regular game session, have continents still locked and capped, alerts still won or lost, and fights either zerged or balanced, and all of this without Construction.

Construction needs to be more fundamental tied into the current game meta. We should need to fight at player-made bases if we want to achieve some important goal.

Also, there needs to be more restrictions on some aspects of Construction and less on other aspects. I know placing a HIVE on the front like of a 96+ vs 96+ isn't a good idea, but placing one two hexes away from your faction's warpgate isn't generating any real fights either.


Overall, Construction represents a virtual goldmine of untapped potential, but it's just not being utilized properly.


Basically, I think Visigodo's a salty old HA vet who's mad that his ability to farm newbies is reduced, and that Construction is a great thing for PS2.

My issue with construction, is that even if there was a reason to fight over the player built bases, is that I just don't find the fights enjoyable. Maybe it's because attacking them is pretty unrewarding, and usually they are built places in the middle of nowhere or in a small crater making them very hard to attack.

Last night, for the first time I saw a base built in between Indar Ex and Quartz Ridge that pretty much stopped the flow of battle. The NC wouldn't push Quartz, and the VS couldn't destroy the NC base, which pretty much caused a very long stalemate with 48-96 players with roughly equal pop on both sides.

They are adding spawn tubes to player built bases, but in my opinion, that would make the scenario worse because attacker spawns would get destroyed by base turrets while the defender spawns are safe behind the base walls.

I wish there would be module that would generate a lattice link to a nearby base so we could use it to bypass choke points like the Indar T. Then there would be a good reason to attack a base so that your enemy couldn't cut off your easy to defend bases and it would promote building bases closer to the front lines.

I definitely think the reward needs to go up, by a lot. I think that destroying a deployed construction that's actively powered with Cortium should net a large EXP reward of 1000-2000, and adjacent players should get 300-500 for just being there.

Knocking out the HIVE should grant a hefty 5000-10000 EXP, depending on proximity to your warpgate. And any players that participated in the fight should get a small chunk of that as well.

There needs to be direct incentives for fighting, not just the crummy EXP bonus you get from being absurdly close to the HIVE. Actively participating should be equally rewarded then "securing" a kill on a tower and screwing the players who worked to bring it's health down.


I think that the Lettuce Module would be pretty cool, and that might alleviate some of the current issues, but I think a completely awesome way to incentive fighting at playermade bases would be to link Superheavy units like the Bastion or the Colossus tank to them. Though obviously that's some pretty lofty thinking, it would be sick if I could fight at a playermade base alongside or even against a mighty Colossus tank.


TBH, I dislike the Turrets in their current state. Too often do they deny any real fighting over these bases because they just demolish anything that comes near them. Without giving Aircraft an active way to deny Cortium to bases and rapidly deactivate the turrets, they just overpower all but the largest of zergs... Or they sit uselessly out of reach and get knocked down one by one.

I think the exp boosts you're proposing might be a little over the top.

Instead, I'd suggest that they be awarded based on a multiplier tied to a population ratio, that only kicks in after a certain level, to prevent fourth faction farming or base stomping, basically roving squads that stomp bases as soon as they get past a critical point such as the sky shield going up.

This would scale the rewards for base assaults according to how many people are actually involved on both sides The baseline would be, say, 750xp for killing skyshields, 2k for killling the hive, which falls off as your distance to the hive increases, to discourage "I was there and got my ribbon for passing through the hex" xp rewards. The multiplier is designed to prevent swarms and stomps. So you get more xp for having a fight thats nominally fun for all, as opposed to just hellzerging anytime someone pops a hive.

TLDR but a tip - copy the text to notepad first, then back to here, it will strip out all the formatting from the other site. Added a few line spaces too.

Ultimately I haven't gotten to use construction yet. I stopped playing on pc when the game came out for PS4. I'm not really surprised most people think it's pointless. But I don't have any first hand experience so I can only speculate on construction. I think The ANT was a poor way to implement construction in my estimation.. They should have made cortium awarded for commanders successful leading of squads, similar to how command xp was rewarded in planetside2. So commanders could then build bases based on the ebb and flow of battle. Attacking a tough choke point and our spawns keep getting hammered. Drop in a couple walls and fortify up for a good siege battle.

Speaking of siege they absolutely NEED to put in base resources so you can siege a base into taking it. These never ending biolab fights are ridiculous. Yesterday NC fought TR at Mani biolab for the better part of 4 hours. It ended up being cont locked by VS before the battle was decided. Wtf kind of crap is that.

I think Vindictus or what ever the OP's name is is right. This should be an MMORTSFPS. Basically you design an RTS system in which each player is a piece in the overall war. Outfits develop and maintain the RTS side of the battle with specialized commander tools in the midst of all the chaotic FPS shooter game play. I honestly think construction is a step in that direction if they can do it right. Ditch the whole cortium collection part and make construction based on outfit points or command points. Then make it more frontline accessible so you can build during the thick of it.

The original Planetside was much closer to the idea of an RTSFPS idea than planetside2 is. In fact I think they missed the train by not expanding or downright stealing many of the better ideas from the original.

Maybe we could petition Blizzard into someday make a Starcraft MMORTSFPS.

I feel like I'm the only one who enjoys Construction in this game. My only problem is that it's too difficult to get into. I don't generate too many certs, so I'm limited to the absolute basics or helping out another base.

How so? 8-16 certs for a construction and 40-80 for a hive.

You realize you get 1-2 certs per kill in some cases. And 20 just for capping a base. Taking out a fully loaded constructed base is a bit tougher.

-my response to the post-

I've actually really enjoyed both attacking and defending player made bases. I actually think there should be more of these kind of side activities in the game as it makes the map feel much more alive then it does when everyone's doing the same thing.

My beastly system is running Planetside 2 just fine.

The galaxys bulldog is only really op in the sense that the starting weapons on the gall are trash. If a lock down prowler gets on the flank of a deployed sundy that sundys probably dead, gatekeeper or not. I actually much prefer the halberd myself. I've been doing a lot of flying lately and have only seen coyotes being used twice, wasn't shot down by them either time.

If you hate screen shake and flinch use the battle hardened implant. As much as I hate to say it I don't really see putting ping limits into the game as an option because it would shrink server pops even further. Also getting instantly kicked because your ping jumped would be even more frustrating then the ping jump itself. avoiding zergs is one reason I like playing on Hossin.

-in summary-
Thing is Planetside 2 has last quite a while now and it's normal for a game to become overshadowed by other more recent titles. Just getting back into the game recently in my opinion planetside 2 is more fun to play now then it ever was for me in the past, aside from having no mic of course

For me, the first week of player bases was awesome. Shiny new fights everywhere, lots of different areas of the map to visit and a huge influx of players (new and old) made it really appealing. After that though for me, the appeal did waiver significantly.

Having not played for a month I've come back to shocking server performance (at least 0.5 - 2 seconds between final vehicle hits registering and then the vehicle actually exploding), fewer people it seems than ever before, and very few player made bases (with even fewer actually being manned or attacked). On Cobalt it seems that continents are locking and unlocking very quickly, pops are a bit skewed (Vanu world pop was down each time I've played over the last few days), and generally things don't seem as fun as they were even just one month ago.

I hope they turn it around as having played some alternate games recently, nothing comes close to the buzz PS2 gives when it hits the mark. Right now, it is a little off for me.

He could have also just highlighted it and used the little "eraser" icon at the top left of the text editor pane - the one that says "Remove Formatting." Those hyperlinks were never going to survive unless he cared for them anyway.

It might be the fact that I haven't played in little over a year, or the fact that I just got a beastly PC that's virtually eliminated lag problems for me.

Perhaps you're just feeling the effects of burn out?

I think the reason construction is the way it is, is to allow even solo players to contribute. A small squad can go get cortium to resupply a base, build a few walls, etc. Limiting it to outfits just excludes most players from it. Same with giving outfit leaders things like nukes, everyone would start their own outfit.

I think the right direction to take this is having player mad bases replace permanent ones, except for major facilities. There are a lot of bases that are lame to fight at, this would keep things fresh.

I think some changes to construction are in order...

Generated VP and alerts are your only source of VP

You need to be able to construct closer to real bases (still not inside), this allows you to fortify locations to assault (and make a new spawn) or secure terrain and thus deny it from attackers when defending a base.

All bases need to refine cortium, but at a slow rate, like 5-10% or something to where it takes many to amount to one HIVE worth of cortium.

HIVEs should be changed to something you construct inside of a base with any generator, and on the generator itself. This would increase cortium refinement rate of that base to 100%. The thing is that doing so takes that base off of the lattice for the enemy, which means it can be back-hacked, and potentially cut off other bases depending on where your empire is pushing and what other bases they have.

You can't put a HIVE in a base connected to enemy territory, any warpgate, or another HIVE base.

More bases need more generators.

HIVEs cant be deconstructed, they have to be destroyed manually.

HIVEs allow construction inside of the base perimeter, with some obvious limitations (no constructions indoors, etc)

Destroying a HIVE does not grant it to your empire, and destroying the generator will destroy the HIVE (so SCUs are a good target) capturing the base it is connected to is how you get extra HIVEs, but only until it is destroyed/recaptured so you cant capture a HIVE base and then move the HIVE to another, safer base, you need to be prepared to make a commitment of at least some sort.

Destroying the HIVE does not put the base back on lattice until it is completely secured, so you can't just troll attackers by immediately destroying the HIVE and stopping the cap until they're gone before rebuilding it, but you can prevent the attacking enemy from taking over your HIVE if you feel the base is lost.

These changes would help INTEGRATE the construction system into what we already have and enhancing that experience, rather than making it a stand alone system which fractures the player base and takes away from the main game experience.

Agreed. Silos dot the landscape from Cortium farming.

I just finished reading the post, and, while I may catch some flak for saying this, it frankly sounded like a bunch of whining.

He had a little bit of a point on construction, but even then it was rather subjective. After that it came down to "I don't like or know how to counter this thing, so the game is bad." "MAXes are broken because reasons," "force multiplyers are broken because reasons," "screenshake is broken because reasons." Etc.

I'm sorry, and maybe it's just that I've grown impatient with these sort of threads, (we have far too many of them here, and only just rid ourselves of a guy yelling "Scam" for two ******* weeks) but the whole thing reeks of the "I don't like it! It needs a nerf!" mentality.

If he doesn't like construction, he doesn't have to build anything. If he doesn't like MAXes, he should invest in C4 and Tank Mines. If he doesn't like force multiplyers, he should invest in C4 and Tank mines. If he doesn't like flinch or screenshake (pretty sure they removed flinch anyhow) he should learn to pre-fire. If he doesn't like his Sundies dying, he should invest in stealth or shield. If he doesn't like Gatekeeper Harassers, he should invest in long range AV. That's just addressing a few of his points.

He's not asking for a better game, he's asking for a simpler one, and quite possibly an easier one. If that's what he wants, there's several games coming out this winter that should suit him nicely.

Edit: I'm not saying the game is perfect (far from it), and there has been some good discussion on potentially positive changes here in this thread. My point was that the poster quoted by the OP struck me as being whiny rather than constructive, not that anyone suggesting or proposing a change to the game here was.

Have WarpGates Run off the Cortium of all Active Silos?

I've seen one or two constructed bases placed in really good tactical positions and damned nearly impossible to break. But the tactical advantage i.e. using them as a base to launch an attack never seems to materialisie and you can't even spawn into them if you wanted to, unless someone parks a deployed Sundy in them.

Being on the other side, attacking said bases is the most unrewarding experience I've had in PS2 and fortunately it is not worth doing as they pose no real threat.

Most other bases I've seen appear to be just thrown up for a bit of fun, miles from the fight and often deserted - or just just collecting VP.

I think base construction is a good addition to the game despite what I've just said..........I think people are just taking a while to work out how to incorporate it into the fighting bit of the game i.e. the other 99% of what PS2 is about. I will say that constructed bases have tended to shift the locations of some battles - a good thing and something I said I hoped would happen when the plan was first announced.

I think there are a few points made in the thread that do need addressing.

Firstly constructed bases don't fit in well and the hive mechanic isn't a good one. It feels more like a hack to get people to care about bases. The bases aren't being used to build on the existing game so much (although in some cases they are).

Secondly constructed bases are boring to attack and boring to defend. This isn't always the case, but mostly it is. I remember a very good fight a week or so after construction went live where we were holding a small base behind a hill just below quartz ridge. A line of prowlers and a swarm of TR were attacking for a good 30 minutes or so and getting out to collect cortium was a risky venture. Most of the time however it's empty bases in the middle of nowhere with a core plonked down.

To deal with both of these things need a few simple changes. Firstly infiltrators need to be able to hack turrets (not modules). That instantly changes the dynamic of base design from turrets are great to turrets are sometimes great but can also be taken over by invisible psychos and used to destroy the base. It's going to punish turret spam a lot more and give infantry a simple way of dealing with bases that are undefended.

Next bases need to use more cortium and the hives need to store less. This means more ant runs and stops large bases from getting too obscene or requires them to control the surrounding area.

Cortium needs to be spawned in selected fields in just a few places around the continent and they should get rid of the no-deploy zones. With increased cortium requirements and potentially less nearby cortium, it's going to make maintaining a defence a lot tougher without ant runs and also let bases do a lot more work since they can protect the real objectives people care about. By creating only a few fields it also makes the movements of ants much more predictable for raiders. For instance if TR has 2 cortium fields and only one is nearby a sprawling TR base, it doesn't take much to figure out how to cut off the supply of resources to the base and starve the modules of power. Once the powered modules are gone bases fall quickly to vehicles.

People complain that people who like construction are playing a different game, that's true but more because the mechanics give them no choice. People want to build bases that are wanted, needed and useful. However at the moment that's pretty hard and marginal at best.